Bill Gates becomes ‘Secret Santa’ on Reddit

Billionaire Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates surprised a user of the website Reddit this week when he revealed himself to be the sender of a “Secret Santa” package arranged through an online gift exchange.

A woman who has identified herself as “Rachel” (or Reddit user
"NY1227")
posted on the web forum on Wednesday to express her disbelief
after opening a package she received in the mail from another
Redditor.

The package read “To Rachel, from Bill,” but the recipient didn’t
immediately realize the actual identity of the “Secret Santa”
sender.

Rachel wrote that she ripped through a package from “Bill”
containing a greeting card, a stuffed animal and a copy of a
National Geographic “Journeys of a Lifetime” travel book before
she was able to realize who had selected her in the secret gift
exchange.

“I thought Bill sounded like a friendly fellow. In fact, I
had this whole image of this poor guy named Bill trying to
navigate my wishlist full of makeup, nailpolish, glittery things
to buy me,” Rachel wrote.
“Quite frankly I felt bad for this 'Bill' since I'm a
self-identified pain in the ass to shop for. I finally opened the
card and realized that ‘Bill’ (I use quotes, because like I said,
I still didn't realize that this was THE Bill) had donated to a
charity on my behalf.”

Indeed, it wasn’t makeup or “glittery things” at all in the
package, but a presumably generous contribution made in Rachel’s
name to the Heifner International charity — which helped the
recipient understand the significance of the stuffed cow she had
shipped to her in the mail.

“My Secret Santa present to you is a cow!” reads the
accompanying card from Gates. “Don’t worry — you will not
have to build a barn. This cow will be given to a family in need,
in your name, through Heifer International. It will provide them
with income and dairy products, and it will help them help
themselves.” On their website, the company says “The
goal of every Heifer project is to help families achieve
self-reliance,” which they’ve aimed to achieve by providing
assistance to roughly 18.5 million families since the 1940s.

“Heifer partners with community groups to form development
plans and to train beneficiaries in animal well-being,
agroecology, water quality, gender equity and community
development, among other topics,” their website reads.
“The training enables them to care for livestock, grow crops
sustainably and further lift themselves out of poverty.”

“I took a break from my present to research the charity a
bit, and now the stuffed animal cow made sense,” Rachel
wrote on Reddit. “I was so excited, the cause seemed really
worthy and amazing, and it is the season of giving.”

Only after 35 minutes or so, she wrote, did she notice that the
card was autographed by Gates underneath a “Happy Holidays”
message alongside and a stylized version of the Reddit mascot
adorned in the Microsoft creator’s trademark glasses. He also
included in the package a photograph of himself holding the cow
and card for authenticity.

“It makes me so happy that he was able to donate to a charity
on my behalf that helped people with both needs and educational
benefits,” she added.

As of Thursday Rachel says she hasn’t been able to directly
contact Gates to thank him for his donation, but hopes she’ll be
able to write to him personally express her appreciation.

In the meantime, she signed her open letter on Reddit with an
apology meant for Gates if he gets around to surfing the website
sometime soon.

“Sorry for the Apple iPad on my wishlist,” she wrote,
“that was really awkward.”